Springfield resident Jay Groff recalls the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the Nov. 8 Rotary Club of Alexandria Veterans Day luncheon.
Fairfax County — They said it couldn’t be done. There had never been anything like it in the history of warfare, but with unmistakable red spheres visible on every wing, 353 Japanese planes descended undetected over the islands of Hawaii on a sleepy Sunday morning. It was Dec. 7, 1941 – the “date that will live in infamy.”
“The Japanese timed it perfectly,” said Jay Groff, who was preparing to head to his duty station at Hawaii’s Hickam Air Force Base when Pearl Harbor was suddenly attacked. “We didn’t believe a sneak attack was possible. We were told – and believed - that the islands were impregnable and that no one could get close to us. We were a victim of our own propaganda.”
Groff was a 19-year-old Chief Warrant Officer serving in the Army Air Corps Rescue Boat Service. Now 94 years old, he remembers vividly that moment 75 years ago when “hell came raining down on us.”
“Most of us were still asleep in our bunks on what was a typical Hawaiian morning,” recalled Groff. “A few lucky ones were on leave in Honolulu, money still jingling in their pockets from payday a few days earlier. I was still in my skivvies when the first bomb landed outside the barracks.”
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came in two waves. The first hit its target at 7:53 a.m. followed by a second wave an hour later. Within 90 minutes it was over. Left behind was chaos: 2,403 Americans dead with another 1,178 wounded; 188 destroyed planes and a Pacific Fleet crippled by eight damaged or destroyed battleships. In one stroke the Japanese propelled the United States into World War II.
“When the bombs began to fall, personal security was forgotten,” Groff said from his home in Springfield. “That was the first time I was scared. I could see the bombs coming through the ceiling. But to do our duty was all that mattered. We responded to the challenge.”
As Japanese Zeros strafed the base with gunfire, Groff made his way to an armament building to help set up machine guns in a baseball field.
"We set up probably 10 guns between home plate and third base," Groff recalled. “I still hadn’t bothered to put clothes on and to this day I couldn't tell you if I was wearing shoes."
Groff then manned a machine gun on the roof of his boathouse duty station. During that time, he saw an unarmed American B-17 bomber try to land on the runway just beyond the boathouse.
"The Zeroes' rounds hit a flare box in the B-17 and by the time it finished rolling the plane had burned in half," said Groff.
Hickam Air Force Base was one of Japan’s primary targets during the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, Hickam suffered extensive damage, aircraft losses and loss of life with 189 people killed and 303 wounded.
“We didn’t realize at the time that day would become such a significant part of world history,” Groff said.
At the time of the attacks, there were more than 80,000 U.S. service members living on Oahu. It is believed that fewer than 2,000 are still alive today.
“With each passing year there are fewer survivors to remember the valor of those who died,” said Groff, who will lay a wreath at the WWII Memorial in Washington as part of the formal 75th anniversary ceremonies. “It’s important to honor those who fought in the Battle of Pearl Harbor and survived that day of infamy. These are the men and women at the forefront of the Greatest Generation.”